so data is becoming a bigger and bigger
part of the products that people use
every day product designers like myself
need to rapidly embrace that data and we
need to begin to proactively define our
relationship with it now what I'm going
to ask is that all of you imagine that
you're also designers and I want us to
think for a second about the difference
between designing and experience in the
physical world
versus designing experiences in the
digital world now let's imagine that we
have someone who wants to hear music in
the real world they'll probably want to
go and see a concert they're going to
come to our venue they're going to try
to find their seat they're going to sit
down and listen to that music
and because we were designing that
experience the decisions we made play
into that experience for them but they
may have had a hard time finding parking
parking that staircase that we built to
take them to their balcony seat might
have been too narrow and they had to
fight the crowd to get there on time or
the band could be running late there are
so many steps and so many variables in
that process that are completely out of
control of the people who are ultimately
responsible for delivering that music to
them that's us right now in the digital
world the interactions the flows the
music itself is all collapsed and
condensed into a single screen and it's
usually one that you can hold in your
hand so what that means for you as
product designers is that you have so
much more control but also so much more
responsibility for that experience and
because it's digital it also means that
we can collect data throughout the whole
thing so what do we do with all this
data data actually helps to inform us
about how people are using our product
along the way but actually data can also
engage us in an ongoing conversation
where it helps us to hone and refine our
customer instincts over time but there
actually is a danger because as we dive
into that data we might get lost in the
numbers and something that we all need
to remember is that data is a
representation and a measurement of what
real people are doing with our products
in the real world and rather than a
acting is further from human behavior we
need to think about how we can use data
as a tool to actually bring that
behavior into relief so how do we do
that we can ask ourselves two very
simple questions what is it that people
want to accomplish from the user
products but also how well are we doing
it delivering that experience to them so
if we go back to that situation I was
just describing the questions that we
might ask ourselves are how long did it
actually take for someone to hear that
music and in that concert hall did
everything start on time how often do
they come back to our venue and hear
concerts again and again and in the
digital world we can ask the same thing
how long did it take for them to
actually hear music was there anything
in our interface that confused them or
got in their way and how often are they
launching our app how often in a day how
often in a week how often in a month so
designers need to think about asking
these questions and asking the right
questions but also then taking that data
and measuring the results and they have
to be able to understand the nuances of
that data data can then help to empower
and inform the designers to help make
the right decisions along the way but we
do need to remember that data and design
are just two tools that we use to
actually craft experiences for people so
I'm going to dive into a little example
here and I'm going to use Spotify as an
example Spotify is streaming music
service and when you take a product like
Spotify that has evolved organically
over the years sometimes you look at
what you have and you realize it's a bit
of a mess right like dark the people at
Spotify working on this product knew
that it was a problem and it's not like
the customers liked it either some
customers felt that the lighter
interfaces were headache-inducing other
customers thought that the darker
interfaces felt like Darth Vader so
between these two extremes it really
wasn't that much place to go right
well actually the designers decided to
start to do some explorations and as
they did those explorations the key
hypothesis began to emerge that rather
than the existing experience which was
mostly light
a darker experience which actually
focused on the visuals and showcased the
content and by content here what I mean
is the music the artists the albums the
playlists the things that are actually
at the heart of Spotify but that a
darker experience which showcase that
content would actually be more engaging
and make it easier for people to find
the music that they were looking for but
now moving to a darker interface across
all the platforms was going to be a big
change on those users and we all know
how much we love it when someone
subjects us to change right yeah we love
it no this is actually going to be a big
risk and so what the team did is along
the way they used standard best
practices user research usability
surveys to help inform them and to me
all of this is data eventually what the
team did was they ran an a/b test and
this is where you take one to five
percent of your user base and actually
put them on this new darker experience
while the remaining percentage of
customers stayed with a lighter
experience and what this really did is
it allowed the team to test this new
design in the real world but not
actually on the whole world so what did
they learn well actually when they
looked at the business metrics the
people who are using the new design
actually listened to as much or more
music than the lighter interface and
when people were asked what they thought
of the new design and surveys more of
them felt that it showcased the music it
brought the content forward and in fact
they even thought that it had a broader
range of music so think about this a
broader range of music nothing had
changed about that product except for
the look and feel no more songs were
added the catalogue wasn't brought in
but yet they still felt that it had a
broader range of music so as the team
moved from this to this data actually
gave them the confidence that something
that they thought was going to be a huge
risk and a big change on their users was
actually something that the customers
wanted and not only that it was actually
good for the business as well but we all
know that when we launch a product we're
not done it's no longer the time when
you only have one chance to get
something right our products are in a
constant cycle of experimentation and so
there was an internal debate that was
going on within Spotify at that time as
well and that was about these play
buttons the buttons that are here on
this cover art some people felt that it
was really important to have an explicit
call to action so that the users knew
exactly where to click when they wanted
to hear music and if your user base
isn't that sophisticated a visual cue
like this can actually be really really
important on the other hand some people
felt that those buttons were redundant
and cluttered the interface and actually
they went against the principle of
showcasing the music so a test was done
again where these two designs were pit
against each other and what turned out
was that the buttons were not necessary
people who didn't have the buttons
played more music than those who did now
I know this sounds like a small minor
insignificant detail but when the core
of your product is all about playing
music a button like this it can actually
be the foundation of that experience so
the two examples that I just gave you
show that data actually told the
designers a lot of things but what data
didn't do is it didn't give the
designers that initial inspiration to
try a darker interface that showcase the
music data also didn't start that
internal debate about whether or not
those play buttons should exist the
experiences that we design define the
kind of data that we can and do collect
on them so in that sense data is limited
but what data can actually do is inform
us about how people are using our
product and what happens when designers
actually take a step back and try to
look at the patterns in that data over
time is that they might be able to
extract design principles they might
actually be able to extract something
about the importance of showcasing
content and simplicity and hopefully
they can take that knowledge and then
apply it to future work but data can
actually tell us so much more I'm going
to take you back to that concert for a
second so remember that we were talking
about a situation where you're sitting
in the concert hall we're asking
questions to measure the quality of the
experience but we can actually ask
questions that help us to be informed
about the Koala
of the content of the music itself in
the physical world we're going to ask
how many people got up and left in the
middle how loud was the applause how
many people were sleeping these are the
same questions I'm going to ask myself
as I depart this stage but as good an
estimate as I can make about how many of
you are looking at your mobile phones
right now the data that we can collect
in the digital world is so much more
precise and accurate and we can find out
exactly how long someone listened to a
song whether or not they listened to it
over and over again one time two times
twenty-seven times thirty five times and
with that accurate data we can collect
it on each and every single user and
this means that we have the potential to
personalize that experience for so many
people but we really need to be careful
about this power because we are going to
be tempted to deliver to the people
exactly what we think they want at that
moment in time and we're going to need
to balance that with our customers
inherent need to control their
experience digital media products now
are more about personalizing of the
content experiences that are contained
within them rather than about
personalizing the interfaces themselves
so the relationship between the designer
and data is going to continuously evolve
and our customers are going to change as
well as we enter new markets as new
tools and applications are built our
customers behaviors and their
expectations are also going to change
but unlike in the past when we were
bound by some of the decisions that we
might have made about those experiences
like that staircase that was too narrow
we have the opportunity to change it our
products now don't have to be static the
data that we're actually collecting on
them is dynamic and precise and what
that data does is it fills the space in
which we are problem-solving as
designers with infinite possibilities as
we learn more and more about our
customers so the job of the designer is
to harness and leverage the power of
that data now more than ever thank you